If you haven’t yet done so, it’s time to do so. And if you have done so, do it again: Contact your legislators about passing a budget that will protect workers. The House Appropriations Sub-Committee that deals with OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH is scheduled to mark up the FY 2018 Appropriations Bill on Thursday, July…

Major, Radioactive Oops: More than 30 nuclear experts inhaled uranium after radiation alarms and ventilation systems at a Department of Energy weapons site were switched off. The incident raises significant questions about safety in the nation’s premier nuclear labs: “not only were the labs’ procedures and responses riddled with errors, but even after attention was…

It’s report card time and states are lining up to get their grades from the National Safety Council.The State of Safety: A State-by-State Report graded states in three categories: Road Safety, Home Safety and Workplace Safety. No state received an overall “A” grade, but several states received “Bs,” including the state in which I live (Maryland),…

George Yoksas The OSHA family suffered a huge loss last month when George Yoksas passed away at his desk at age 66. It’s somehow fitting that George died at work, because he had dedicated his life to protecting workers. George would say “safety is our craft”. He’d say this proudly when he was excited that…

Press Release Drought Continues When Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last month before the US Senate, he committed to citing employers who have the information about how to make the workplace safe, but don’t do what they need to do to provide a safe workplace. Well, to their credit, OSHA continues to enforce the…

A federal appeals court has blocked EPA’s delay of its methane pollution rule. The court says that the reasoning EPA used, that interested parties didn’t have an opportunity to comment, was “unreasonable,” “arbitrary” and “capricious.” As the New York Times explains, “Methane is a potent greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.” So,…

UGI worker killed in Pa. home explosion, company confirms Lancaster, PA — A UGI worker was killed and two others were injured in a house explosion early Sunday afternoon in Lancaster County, according to the Reading-based gas company. A woman was told to leave the home while UGI and a Lancaster Area Sewer Authority employee checked on a gas…

We read the painful stories in the Sunday papers so you don’t have to. Today a story about the corporate takeover of the Environmental Protection agency. It’s common for pundits to ridicule the Trump administration and Congress for pretty much zero major accomplishments over the past six months aside from a new Supreme Court justice.…

Save Harwood, Save Workers: The Trump Administration’s plan to scrap the Susan Harwood Worker Training Grant program has been getting a bit more negative attention. Some of the attention has come from Charles Davis at ATTN, mobile media platform for the young(er) folk. His piece, ‘Workers Are Going to Die’: The Overlooked Budget Cut That Could…

A proposal that would have blocked workers compensation benefits for undocumented workers injured on the job was defeated Wednesday in the Ohio state Senate. Last month, by a vote of 65-29, the Ohio House of Representatives passed H.B. 27, which included language giving “employers immunity for injuries suffered by undocumented immigrants except when the worker…